s
who had escaped by chance.

The girls, holding one another's arms in groups of six or eight, were
singing; the youths followed them, making jokes, with their caps over
their ears and their blouses stiffened with starch, swollen out like blue
balloons.

The whole countryside was there--masters, laboring men and women
servants.

Old Amable himself, wearing his old-fashioned green frock coat, had
wished to see the assembly, for he never failed to attend on such an
occasion.

He looked at the lotteries, stopped in front of the shooting galleries to
criticize the shots and interested himself specially in a very simple
game which consisted in throwing a big wooden ball into the open mouth of
a mannikin carved and painted on a board.

Suddenly he felt a tap on his shoulder. It was Daddy Malivoire, who
exclaimed:

"Ha, daddy! Come and have a glass of brandy."

And they sat down at the table of an open-air restaurant.

They drank one glass of brandy, then two, then three, and old Amable once
more began wandering through the assembly. His thoughts became slightly
confused, he smiled without knowing why, he smiled in front of the
lotteries, in front of the wooden horses and especially in front of the
killing game. He remained there a long time, filled with delight, when he
saw a holiday-maker knocking down the gendarme or the cure, two
authorities whom he instinctively distrusted. Then he went back to the
inn and drank a glass of cider to cool himself. It was late, night came
on. A neighbor came to warn him:

"You'll get back home late for the stew, daddy."

Then he set out on his way to the farmhouse. A soft shadow, the warm
shadow of a spring night, was slowly descending on the earth.

When he reached the front door he thought he saw through the window which
was lighted up two persons in the house. He stopped, much surprised, then
he went in, and he saw Victor Lecoq seated at the table, with a plate
filled with potatoes before him, taking his supper in the very same place
where his son had sat.

And he turned round suddenly as if he wanted to go away. The night was
very dark now. Celeste started up and shouted at him:

"Come quick, daddy! Here's some good stew to finish off the assembly
with."

He complied through inertia and sat down, watching in turn the man, the
woman and the child. Then he began to eat quietly as on ordinary days.

Victor Lecoq seemed quite at home, talked from time to time to Celeste,